The price of Bitcoin has boomed over the past few weeks, with a price of $7,314 at the time of writing. One of the the drivers behind this is Bitcoin's anticipated code update on November 16, dubbed Segwit2x, which will increase the size of blocks on the blockchain powering Bitcoin from 1MB to 2MB.

In turn, this will increase the speed, and size, of transactions that can be processed on the Bitcoin blockchain, making it more efficient. The code update, called a fork, will follow a similar pattern to previous ones, which led to the creation of new cryptocurrencies Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin Gold.

The potential for another fork of this nature is one of the major drivers behind Bitcoin's price boom. When a fork occurs, the rules determining what a "block" is are changed. The rules are determined by the people mining cryptocurrency on the blockchain, and if they cannot agree on those rules, then two different blockchains occur simultaneously. When this happens, a new cryptocurrency is created and, because both new blockchains share the same history, the original tokens are duplicated in the new currency.

In a way, it seems like holders of the original cryptocurrency, in this case Bitcoin, are receiving free money. It's the potential for this scenario to occur off the back of Segwit2x that's driving more people to invest in Bitcoin.

A new cryptocurrency is by no means certain, meaning Bitcoin investors hoping to double their holdings may be disappointed. The outcome of the software update isn't set in stone, and the scenario outlined above may not occur. If a majority decision on the new rules, either for or against, can be agreed by miners then the blockchain underpinning Bitcoin will continue to operate as it has done historically. In that case, those hoping to gain "free" cryptocurrency will be left wanting.

However, even this result is unlikely to have a negative impact on the price of Bitcoin, as a majority decision would improve perceptions of stability, while a code update is sure to improve processing power of its underlying system. Whatever the outcome of the software update, we expect Bitcoin to continue to ascend in the near future.